Saturday, April 6, 2013

Page 1 -- I.

((Note to new readers: If you find the text too small or otherwise hard on the eyes, try zooming in with your web browser. Or, if you'd rather read the story in e-book format, you can download the first three story arcs [290 pages on this site] for free over at Smashwords or Amazon.))

22 comments:

Mmmm, interesting start, but the logic at the end seems a bit weak. Were you the Grim Reaper (or one of many, which makes much more sense) would you really worry that you were ferrying people to oblivion? I mean, if they're not actually going somewhere, why provide a guide? Clearly, the reaper has been provided to ensure passage to another realm. I would think this more a comfort than a concern. Sure, you don't know whether you're passing them to a heaven, a hell, or a purgatory, but you can shrug that off as "judgment's not in the job description; someone else handles that up the line."

I'll offer you a minor spoiler here, so please beware. The reaper community (as there is more than one) is very much NOT clear on whether an afterlife exists, and in fact, this is a matter of much contention for them.

As for why "guides" are necessary, this is a plot point that I've yet to get around to, but I'll go ahead and answer this. Reapers choose to act as guides for numerous reasons, but the primary one is simply because a soul that is left alone decays over time into an agonizing prison of semi-consciousness.

Also, this is only the first page. Perhaps you didn't realize that there's about 170 more pages already posted?